Syria: Christian non-violent activist Yara stays in prison

Arrested on 7/3, accused of membership secret organisation

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, APRIL 23 - Yara Shammas, a 21-year-old
Syrian Christian peace activist, stays in prison under charges
of ''spreading false information'' and ''membership of a secret
organisation, after hearing the accusations made by the military
tribunal in Homs. The news was reported to ANSA by the father of
the young woman, human rights lawyer Michel Shammas.

Yara Shammas was arrested in Damascus on March 7 together
with nine other young activists. Six of them have been released,
most of them girls wearing the Islamic headscarf. The ones still
in prison are a freelance journalist, a university student and
the Christian Shammas, who has a degree in computer science and
has been accused of giving moral support to the activists in
Homs. Homs is the Syrian stronghold of the protest against the
regime that started more than a year ago and has suffered a
harsh military clampdown by the regime.
Before she was moved to the prison of Adra (Damascus) and to
Homs last week, Shammas was held for weeks in an underground
prison of the military secret services, one of the four agencies
controlled by the Syrian regime that has ruled the country for
more than half a century. (ANSAmed).